Saturday, January 8, 2011

Get ready for another heated battle in Arizona. Tom Horne, Arizona’s new attorney general, has declared the Tucson school district’s Mexican-American program illegal, while leaving similar programs for black, Asian, and American Indian students alone. Horne also wrote the law he found the program to be in violation of, back when he was the state’s superintendent of public instruction, and Governor Jan Brewer signed it during the protests over the state’s immigration law. Horne says the program, which includes texts such as “The Pedagogy of the Oppressed,” is designed to create future activists and promote race resentment. Asked how he felt being compared to Bull Connor, Horne replied, “They are the ‘Bull Connors.’ They are the ones resegregating.” Eleven teachers in the program have filed suit in federal court challenging the law’s constitutionality.